Mark Sherrill, president of the Tokay Radio Control Modelers, has been forced to take his flying club to Ione after losing the use of sites in Lodi and Acampo. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

Looking for a place to land

Model airplane club rises above loss of local airfields

Mark Sherrill was a full-scale airplane pilot, but he couldn't afford to fly after he got married and started a family.

So the Galt resident turned to something a little less expensive — radio-controlled model airplanes. It's a hobby he began with his son, Zack, now 17. They have now become complete model airplane fanatics, driving to Ione on most Sunday mornings to fly their planes.

That hobby involves creating model airplanes roughly 6 feet long with a 6-foot wingspan, then flying them with a remote control off a miniature runway. Then the plane heads into the bright blue sky surrounded by golden grass and oak trees on Michigan Bar Road just outside Ione. The towers of the former Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant can be seen in the background.

Zack Sherrill, a Galt High senior, began flying model airplanes with his dad more than six years ago. He has full control as the plane takes off from the mini-runway. He turns the lever — which resembles a small joystick on a video game — left and right to maneuver the plane. He moves the lever down to get the plane to go up, and up to bring the plane down.

When changing direction, the plane's wings maneuver just like an actual aircraft.

The Tokay Radio Control Modelers, with about 22 active members, travel to either Ione or the Oakdale area to fly their planes, although they once called Lodi and Acampo home. But neither local site is available any more, so they must travel until they find another location locally.

Mark Sherrill, president of the club, is a maintenance supervisor for an independent power producer in Pittsburg. And he has a pretty big garage, since he can fit 10 airplanes in there. Not all of them work, though. If you think that's a lot of planes to house, Greg Hennefer, of west Lodi, has 15 or 16.

A Funtana X passes overhead at the Ione site where the Tokay Radio Control Modelers currently meet. (Dan Evans/News-Sentinel)

"It's good therapy away from my job," said Hennefer, regional manager at a wholesale distribution center in Fremont.

"You get pleasure out of building something and flying it yourself," Mark Sherrill said.

Radio pilots have all kinds of model planes, ranging from gliders, aerobatic planes, replica aircraft from World Wars I and II, and even helicopters. The costs of the model aircraft ranges from $400 to $2,000, sometimes more. Hennefer's $800 plane burns a specialty fuel and he uses about a half-gallon each Sunday. It has a Saito 180 engine, a 4-Stroke motor, propeller, battery and a handheld controller to direct the plane. It runs on radio frequency. "It's absolutely like flying an airplane, but on a smaller scale," Hennefer said.

Like many hobbies, you can spend as much or as little as you want, he added.

The Tokay Radio Control Modelers was founded in Lodi in 1970. Participants range from teenagers to a man who will turn 80 later this month.

Hennefer said he would like to get more young people involved.

"It's a lot healthier than playing video games," he said.

The club used a mini-airport northeast of Beckman Road and Kettleman Lane for 30 years until 2005, when the city of Lodi traded land with Geweke Toyota. The land where the club flew their planes now houses a detention pond for storm drainage.

The club's problem was short-lived after finding 10 acres at the northeast corner of Liberty and Dustin roads, just south of the Sacramento County line, where they installed a mat — similar to bark used in gardens — for a runway 600 feet long and 65 feet wide. The club used the Acampo property from the middle of 2006 until the following February, when three neighbors complained about the noise out in the country.

Because the club didn't have a permit from San Joaquin County, the county issued a cease and desist order until the club got the proper permits, Hennefer said. The club had already spent $17,000 to construct the field in 2006. After the complaint was filed, the club spent $2,345 in permit fees and $3,000 for a noise study.

But then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service informed the Tokay Radio Control Modelers that the Acampo property had tiger salamanders, owl clover and fairy shrimp, Sherrill said.

The club decided to close up shop rather than comply with U.S. Fish and Wildlife's mandate to purchase an equal amount of land with a tiger salamander habitat, Hennefer said. They still had to restore the 10 acres to its original look.

Now, to fly planes, the Tokay club has to drive 35 miles to Ione, or to Sacramento, Tracy or the Oakdale area to continue their hobby.

But it's a drive of love.